Dissatisfied with Your Job? Retire

A new report shows that while age factors into federal employees’ retirement plans, soon-to-be retirees are also taking into account how satisfied they are with their jobs.

Greg Lewis of Georgia State University and David Pitts of the University of California, Irvine are the authors of the new report entitled Deciding to Retire From the Federal Service. The authors looked at personnel records for employees age 50 or older, using feedback from the 2012 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey to determine what other else, besides age, may factor into their retirement decisions.

The research focused on six questions from the Survey dealing with agency leadership, supervisors, recognition and rewards, experience with co-workers, opportunities for advancement and pay, and overall job satisfaction.

“The two things that really seemed to make a difference, where the agency could have some impact on employee decisions, was the overall leadership of the agency and the person’s attachment to their particular job,” said Lewis in an interview with Federal News Radio.

Employees age 50 and older made up around 45.5% of the federal workforce at the end of 2014, and by 2017, about 30% of the federal workforce will be eligible for retirement.

“The federal workforce is by far older than state and local government workforces or private sector workforces, and eventually that retirement tsunami just has to hit,” Lewis said.

Read the full interview with author Greg Lewis at  Federal News Radio.